


Of All Persisting Stars

by crumplelush



Series: tumblr prompts [16]
Category: Marvel 616, Young Avengers
Genre: Brotherly Affection, Brotherly Bonding, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-14
Updated: 2016-06-14
Packaged: 2018-07-15 01:20:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7199639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crumplelush/pseuds/crumplelush
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes he just needs his brother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of All Persisting Stars

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt '"If I believe" by ee cummings for the poem prompt with Young Avengers' on tumblr.
> 
> I changed it to the Minimoffs because I wanted to explore their relationship a bit more. And there's not enough fics of the brothers actually being brotherly, rather than just teammates.
> 
> Title is the last line of the poem.

The moon hangs heavy in the sky, low and fat and seeming much closer than usual. The stars are out and Tommy idly wonders at them from his position on the rooftop – laying flat on his back with his left arm curled under his head. His right hand loosely curled around a bottle of beer that he doesn’t actually want to drink. He’d opened it more out of a sense of aimlessness rather than any actual desire.

The weather has been hot and oppressive for the last few days, leading to fractious tempers and explosive arguments over unimportant things. Tommy wishes for a thunderstorm to clear the air. Wants the rain to wash away the heavy atmosphere and the angry sentiments that have been building for half a week now.

It’s been a struggle. Everyone has been struck down by this irate lethargy which has left them with no desire or inclination to do anything other than snipe at each other. Tommy hasn’t been much in the mood for any activity, leaving him frustrated and unsatisfied.

A clock sounds in the background. It’s 3am and too hot to sleep. To hot to do much of anything besides lie here and brood. The dreams have been particularly bad this week. Waking up in twisted sheets heavy with sweat and the dreams he can barely recall. He remembers fire. Fire and torment and anguish and pain. He remembers crying, he remembers begging. He remembers it not mattering one bit and the torture continuing. 

He feels static electricity in the air, and for one moment he thinks his prayers have been answered and the rain has finally come. But then the static crystallises into a blue form and his brother appears. He raises an eyebrow but Billy doesn’t say anything. Just nods his greeting and grimaces at the heat. He’s wearing jeans and a long sleeved t-shirt, obviously he’s just come from somewhere inside and air conditioned. Tommy wonders why he’s come outside in this sticky heat to suffer, but can’t be bothered to ask.

Billy for his part seems content not to say anything. He pulls his t-shirt off and dumps it at Tommy’s feet. His shoes follow and he rolls his jeans up as far as they go. Then he sits down next to Tommy and pulls the beer out of his brothers unresisting hand and takes a sip. 

Tommy side eyes Billy for a few seconds before getting bored and turning his attention back to the stars. It really is hot, and even in his shorts and vest top he feels like he’s overheating. But he doesn’t want to go back inside. Even if his apartment did have air conditioning (which it doesn’t) right now he doesn’t want to be cooped up inside. He needs to be outside. Breathing the air. Even if it does sit in his lungs as dense as soup.

They sit in silence for a while, the clock dimly chiming the quarter hour. It’s times like these that Tommy vaguely wishes he smoked. Just so he could have something to do with his hands. But he’s not that much of an idiot so he doesn’t.

Finally his curiosity gets the better of him. “Any particular reason you’re here?” he asks.

“Yes”, is all the reply he gets. He waits a bit longer in case there’s more forthcoming.

When there isn’t any he asks again. “What would that reason be then?”

Billy sighs heavily, as though Tommy has asked him some impossible metaphysical conundrum of the ages. “Had a bad dream, woke up screaming. Needed to see if you were OK.”

The news that Billy get the same nightmares doesn’t surprise Tommy at all. After all, he’d guessed where they came from. But the fact that Billy had needed him did surprise him. Tommy had woken from every dream with an intense desire to see Billy, check he was OK. But it had never occurred to him that Billy might feel the same way.

This must have shown on his face as when Billy looked at him, his own face dropped. “After all these years and you still don’t get it?” he said, looking sadly at Tommy.

Tommy made an enquiring sound and Billy continued. “You’re my brother. My _twin_ even. We’re a part of each other. You annoy the shit out of me but that doesn’t mean I need you any less.”

Tommy would have laughed, but Billy sounded so sad when he said it. Like he was expecting a rejection. With effort he pulled himself to a sitting position next to Billy and slung his arms around Billy’s shoulders. Billy stiffened for a second and then relaxed into the hug, his arms easily moving around Tommy’s making them a mirror image. 

And then, suddenly the air felt less oppressive. It was still hot and muggy and in dire need of a good storm. But the restless inertia that had plagued Tommy for the last week had lifted. He felt like he could run again, make jokes and be himself again. He hadn’t realised until now just how much he needed Billy. 

It was still too hot though, and he could tell the moment that Billy got too hot to continue the hug and tried to extricate himself. Tommy purposefully made himself go lax, becoming a deadweight and pinning Billy to the ground as fell. 

“Get off of me you ass!” Billy yelped and hit Tommy in the shoulder in an attempt to move him. Tommy grinned and clambered to his feet, ruffling Billy’s hair on the way. Billy glared and Tommy laughed. It only took a few seconds before Billy started laughing as well. Suddenly an arc of light flashes above their heads and seconds later there’s a crash of thunder.

Tommy watches delightedly as rains spatters on the rooftop around them, his grin only outdone by the one on Billy’s face. They’re both laughing hysterically at nothing when the rain starts to come down heavily and Tommy scoops up Billy’s t-shirt and shoes and heads back downstairs to his flat, Billy hot on his heels.

By the time they get in doors they’re both soaked through. Tommy is feeling much better than he has all week. He grabs towels from his bathroom and some sweatpants and t-shirts off his clothes rack in the corner. They’re still slightly damp but Billy waves his hands and they dry in seconds. They both dry off and get dressed. Tommy folds down the sofa bed and wrangles his bedding out of the cupboard while Billy makes them both cocoa (which Tommy is pretty sure wasn’t in his kitchen this morning) and opens a window so they can both listen to the storm.

Tommy finishes the bed and is flipping through late night/early morning TV to find something inane for them both to watch when Billy returns with the cocoa. It’s hot and sweet and perfect for this moment. Tommy finds a channel showing an episode of Adventure Time and they both collapse on the sofa bed with hot cocoa, cartoons and each other. Billy nods off first, collapsing on his side and curling up under the blanket like a five-year-old. Tommy is sleepy as well so he switches off the TV and curls up on his side as well, back to back with his brother, feeling the comfort of his twin right behind him.

They both sleep like that until late morning. The dreams don’t come for either of them.


End file.
